This year hasn’t been kind to General Electric (GE)–at least until today–but a note from Barclays contends that it might be time to start nibbling on the industrial giant.
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Shares of General Electric have dropped 3.8% so far this year, with everything from its accounting to weaker margins being blamed for its weakness. Barclays’ Scott Davis and team, however, spoke with a source they call the “smartest man in the room,” who just so happens to be “nibbling” on General Electric now. They explain why and offer his views on Honeywell International (HON), Emerson Electric (EMR), and ITT (ITT) as well:
He’s nibbling on GE here and likes the set-up now that numbers have come down a lot. He sees a scenario where he’s fully back to owning GE in size by mid-2017. He wants to own it when we get a CEO transition. He thinks a change in CEO alone is worth 5% in the stock. He likes the Baker Hughes deal, and thinks the 2018 set-up on oil/gas recovery is quite good. He thinks the stock outperforms on an S&P 500 pause/correction, and he notes that he usually goes more defensive by April/May anyway. He owns Honeywell and likes what he heard at the analyst day last week. He thinks the new CEO will manage the portfolio well and sees tailwinds in biz jets and oil/gas by 2H17. He attended the Emerson day but thinks there are cheaper ways to get oil/gas exposure overall, but will probably buy it if it gets back down to the mid-50s. We pitched him ITT and he was intrigued. He thinks its off most peoples radar screens here.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Sirius XM Radio Inc.(SIRI)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Ashley Moore]
But before we get to the stock pick, here’s a list of the 10 top-performing Warren Buffett stocks so far this year…
Company YTD Gains
Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) 34.25%
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) 30.24%
Verisign Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN) 29.88%
Restaurant Brands Inc. (NYSE: QSR) 29.16%
WABCO Holdings Inc. (NYSE: WBC) 28.97%
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) 26.20%
Liberty Sirius XM Group Class C (Nasdaq: LSXMK) 24.54%
MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) 24.35%
Liberty Sirius XM Group Class A (Nasdaq: LSXMA) 22.89%
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: SIRI) 22.81%
Again, we don’t recommend all of the stocks above for retail investors. After all, Warren Buffett is one of the most wealthy and legendary investors in history. He has a completely different set of goals from us.
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
The long saga regarding Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) has finally come to a head. Well, maybe. Rather than KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE: KKR) investing $150 million, Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) will be investing up to $480 million in the streaming music rival. With its ticketing unit sale taking place as well, it might seem that Pandora is getting a great deal and helping to bolster its books.
- [By Rick Munarriz]
There are a lot of people betting against Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI)these days, even as the stock is hitting 10-year highs. There were 280.1 million shares of Sirius XM sold short at the end of 2016, just below the late-November peak of 285.1 million shares but nearly double the short interest that we were seeing a year ago.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: USG Corporation(USG)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By The Ticker Tape]
Homebuilders like Lennar, PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM), and D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE: DHI) could benefit from a strengthening housing recovery. If you’re bullish on housing, you might want to take a step back and think about other companies in that space. Home improvement stores like Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD) and Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) could get a boost as well as companies that supply products for new homes like Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) and USG Corporation(NYSE: USG).
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) was reiterated as Hold but the price target was raised to $35 from $29 (versus a $34.23 close) at Jefferies.
Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgradesincluded Biogen, Goldcorp, GoPro, Oracle, Sirius XM, Tyson Foods, Ciena and many more.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: UnitedHealth Group Incorporated(UNH)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Paul Ausick]
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) traded up 1.07% at $162.30. The stock’s 52-week range is $118.97 to $164.97. Volume was half the daily average of around 3.8 million shares. The company had no specific news Thursday.
- [By Paul Ausick]
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) traded up 0.51% at $166.18. The stock’s 52-week range is $125.26 to $172.14. Volume was 40% below the daily average of around 3.7 million shares. The health insurer had no specific news Friday.
- [By Paul Ausick]
The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Friday was UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) which traded down 4.33% at $156.57. The stock’s 52-week range is $116.02 to $164.97. Volume was more than double the daily average of around 3.7 million shares. The U.S. Justice Department joined a lawsuit against the company alleging overcharges to the Medicare program.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Wendy’s/Arby’s Group Inc.(WEN)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Stark Merrifield]
Bill Ackman: Fifty-year-old Ackmans career began in 1992 when he and fellow Harvard graduate David P. Berkowtiz founded the investment firm Gotham Partners. The firms high-profile bid for Rockefeller Center in New York caused investors to flock to the firm, growing it to $500 million in assets. Then in 2004, with $54 million in personal funding, Ackman started Pershing Square Capital Management. Through Pershing, Ackman bought significant shares in companies like Wendys Co. (Nasdaq: WEN), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG), and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX). Today, Ackman is worth $1.4 billion and is No. 256 on the Forbes 400.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
The market is treating Chipotle as if it is an Amazon, Tesla, Apple or Google, when in fact all they do is make burritos. With the money it would cost you to buy Chipotle today @ $14 billion dollars you could buy Wendy’s (WEN), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Papa John’s International (PZZA), and Dunkin’ Brands (DNKN). Chipotle would need to generate at least $24 in earnings per share in order to justify the current market cap — they are not even expected to generate half of that next year. Chipotle is expected to report Q1 on April 25 and the market, in my opinion, has already more than priced in good news.
- [By Michael Flannelly]
Argus Research upgraded fast food restaurant operator The Wendy’s Co (WEN) on Thursday, noting that the company’s store remodeling and new menus should help drive higher sales.
The analysts upgraded WEN from “Hold” to “Buy” and see shares reaching $10. This price target suggests a 21% upside to the stock’s Wednesday closing price of $8.25.
Wendy’s shares were up 24 cents, or 2.91%, during early morning trading on Thursday. The stock is up 54.19% year-to-date.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Upgrades had a big impact on stocks today. Wendy’s (WEN), for instance, gained 4.5% to $8.62 after being upgraded to Buy at Argus, while Cash America (CSH) advanced 3.7% to $44.32 after being upgraded to Market Outperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities. Walgreen (WAG) proved the big winner in the S&P 500 afterGoldman Sachs called the stock a Conviction Buy.
- [By Rich Duprey]
And that’s despite Burger King and Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) posting higher quarterly comps for years. The restaurant industry itself may be experiencing a slowdown, and fast food is falling with it after having been one of the few areas notching consistent gains, but it means McDonald’s growth was merely an aberration.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: S&P Smallcap 600(PH)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Charles Mizrahi, President and CEO, Hampton Investors, Inc.]
Parker Hannifin (PH) generates strong revenue from its aerospace division, while its primary industrial segment is lagging.
Overall, we like the company’s balanced portfolio. PH had solid order rates this past year with backlog of $3.6 billion between its industrial and aerospace segments.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: S&P GSCI(GD)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) was last trading at $173.21 versus a Merrill Lynch price objective of $200.00 for the company. That implies a gain of 15% if Merrill Lynch is right, and then there is the 1.8% dividend yield to consider for total return investors. General Dynamics has a consensus analyst target price of $186.06 and a 52-week range of $121.61 to $180.09.
- [By Craig Jones]
On CNBC's Fast Money Halftime Report, Jon Najarian spoke about unusually high bullish options activity in General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD). He said that traders were buying the May 190 calls for $3.30. The trade breaks even at $193.30 or around 3 percent higher. Najarian bought calls in General Dynamics and he is planning to hold them for two weeks.
- [By Rich Smith]
Huntington’s problems may not end at the water’s surface, either. While it’s the principal contractor building the Ford-class carriers, Huntington will cooperate with peer shipbuilder General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) to build the new Columbia class of ballistic missile submarines, which will replace the current Ohio class (and up until recently, it was commonly called the “Ohio Replacement Class”).
- [By WWW.KIPLINGER.COM]
Its this kind of environment that has made the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF(ITA) one of the best-performing ETFs over the past decade. Companies like Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) and General Dynamics Corporation (GD) have thrived by producing solutions funded by a thick military wallet.
- [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]
General Dynamics (GD) is number four in the U.S. The company provides combat vehicles; information technology solutions for the military; maintenance overhaul and repair for military aircraft; submarines; and surface ships.
- [By Rich Smith]
As details about the Pentagon’s plan have emerged, it’s become clear that this will be a sizable program, amounting to perhaps $1 trillion in spending over 30 years — not just to upgrade the Minuteman missiles, but also to buy new B-21 stealth bombers from Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC)and have General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) and Huntington Ingalls (NYSE:HII) design an entirely new class of ballistic missile submarines (to be known as the “Columbia class.”)
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Kohl’s Corporation(KSS)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Chris Lange]
Kohls Corp. (NYSE: KSS) has faced an incredibly tough year so far, with its stock down nearly 25%, not to mention its facing the onslaught of e-commerce from sites like Amazon. Faced with the problem of adapt or die, Kohls is taking steps to change its format, but is it too late?
- [By Ben Levisohn]
By now, we all know retailers are facing a tough time. More and more, people are choosing to shop online, putting sales under pressure and leaving many with too many stores. Some department stores have begun to acknowledge the problems–but will they be able to adjust quickly enough in a rapidly changing landscape? Credit Suisse analyst Christian Bussand team believe this process is “well under way” but that didn’t stop them from downgrading Kohl’s (KSS) and J.C. Penney (JCP), even as they upgraded Nordstrom (JWN) and Burlington Stores(BURL). They explain why:
- [By Chris Lange]
The S&P 500 stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Monday was Kohls Corp. (NYSE: KSS) which traded down 4.8% at $38.56. The stocks 52-week range is $33.87 to $59.67. Volume was 4.4 million versus the daily average of 4.8 million shares.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
L Brands surged 11% to $47.85 today, while the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to2,357.49. And while L Brands was the best performer, retailers made up half of the 10 best performing stocks in the benchmark today: Nordstrom (JWN) advanced 2.9% to $44.71, Gap (GPS) jumped 5.1% to $24.06, Kohl’s (KSS) climbed 5.6% to $39.60, andBed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), which reported earnings last night, gained 3.4% to $39.08.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Rent-A-Center Inc.(RCII)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Peter Graham]
A long term performance chart shows shares of Aaron’s, Inc basicallyabove break even with Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE: BBY)taking off againwhile small capshhgregg, Inc (NYSE: HGG) and Rent-A-Center Inc (NASDAQ: RCII)have both been sliding in recent years:
- [By Peter Graham]
A long term performance chart shows shares of Aaron’s, Inc performing better with Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE: BBY) being the big winner whilesmall caps hhgregg, Inc (NYSE: HGG) and Rent-A-Center Inc (NASDAQ: RCII) haveunderperformed, butare showing signs of improvement:
- [By Peter Graham]
A long term performance chart shows shares of Aaron’s, Inc basically breaking even with Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE: BBY) all over the place (albeit it took off again last year) while small capshhgregg, Inc (NYSE: HGG) and Rent-A-Center Inc (NASDAQ: RCII)have both underperformed for over three years now:
- [By Lisa Levin]
Rent-A-Center Inc (NASDAQ: RCII) was down, falling around 26 percent to $9.88. Rent-A-Center reported upbeat quarterly earnings, but the company’s sales missed analysts’ estimates.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: International Business Machines Corporation(IBM)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Sreekanth Anasa]
Further, according to recent reports, AMD, ARM (NSDQ:ARMH), Huawei Technology, International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), Mellanox Technologies (NSDQ:MLNX), and Qualcomm (NSDQ:QCOM) have collaborated with Xilinx (NSDQ:XLNX) tobuild a homogenous interface for different CPUs to share data with FPGA accelerators, which are useful in the datacenter and deep learning space. If this collaboration is successful, it could be very bad news for Intel.
- [By Paul Ausick]
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) traded up 1.08% at $150.58. The stock’s 52-week range is $139.13 to $182.79. Volume was equal to the daily average of around 4.6 million shares. The company had no specific news.
- [By Danny Vena]
Georgia Tech’s College of Computing offers an online Knowledge Based AI course to 300 students each semester staffed by a professor and eight teaching assistants (TA). Over the course of the class, they were inundated with the 10,000 messages received via the classes online forum, which became too onerous to handle. They added a ninth TA in the most recent semester using tools from International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) and its cognitive supercomputer Watson.
- [By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]
As for individual stocks, IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) attracted heavy investor interest following their quarterly earnings releases.
Top 10 Cheap Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Emerson Electric Company(EMR)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Paul Ausick]
Blaming the unwillingness of its target even to discuss a buyout, Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) on Tuesday announced that it has withdrawn its unsolicited offer to acquire Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK) for $225 a share in a deal valued at nearly $30 billion.
- [By Lisa Levin]
Breaking news
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported better-than-expected profit for its first quarter on Wednesday.
Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE: HP) posted upbeat results for its fourth quarter.
NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter and issued strong Q3 guidance.
Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) proposed to acquire Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) for $225 per share in cash and stock. - [By Ben Levisohn]
Shares of General Electric have dropped 3.8% so far this year, with everything from its accounting to weaker margins being blamed for its weakness. Barclays’ Scott Davis and team, however, spoke with a source they call the “smartest man in the room,” who just so happens to be “nibbling” on General Electric now. They explain why and offer his views on Honeywell International (HON), Emerson Electric (EMR), and ITT (ITT) as well:
